Demanding a delay, school teachers in the Dallas Independent School District demonstrated Thursday to urge board members to delay in-person learning until January at the earliest.
Tania Hernandez teaches kindergarten and considers her job one of the most important in society.
"I may be able to stop a bullet and protect a student but I can't stop COVID-19 and once a student gets infected they're going to take that back home and exponentially keep infecting people in our community. This is not about us, this is not about me," she said.
She and other union members did everything from decorating their cars to bring model body bags here to make a point.
They want in-person learning canceled until January, at the earliest. If the board did push the start of in-person learning, the school district wouldn't have the money to pay bills, since funding would be withheld from the state if students don't return to the classroom.
The teachers say take it to the governor, Texas Education Agency, don't just cave.
Demanding a delay, school teachers in Dallas ISD urged board members to delay in-person learning until January at the earliest.
"Education funding is mandated by the law and if it has to go to court that's what we need to do," said Rena Honea President of the Dallas Alliance AFT Union.
Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said he can and may push the start of school back again to October, but we can't overlook that things are improving.
"We have to weigh how nervous and scared our employees are I don't educate a single kid. We can't execute this plan without the support of our teachers," he said.
The teachers are promising to listen but more than anything saying they need to be heard and not dismissed for politics, or even parental wishes.
"We are the last line of defense for our students and our community," said Hernandez.
“Basically, the metrics for public health don’t support physical reopening. We’re prepared to transition to remote learning,” said teacher and union member Andrew Kirk.
Kirk said he’s not comfortable with the idea of in-person learning in September. While the number of COVID cases are declining in Dallas County, he said it’s not enough to put him at ease.
“It’s not an appropriate time to be discussing physical reopening of Dallas ISD given our rates of community transmission and our cases,” said Kirk.
The board meeting, which went on for hours until just after 8:30 p.m., covered the gamut of concerns. School leaders addressed the question about holding off on in-person learning until January of 2021. In response, the board said, if a decision to change the date is made, it would be made in smaller increments.
Superintended Michael Hinojosa said he’s not ready to change the September 8 date at this point, but would expect to decide by next week
“I have the authority of up to four weeks to move it as far as October,” said Hinojosa. “My decision is based on the health matters in the county. Depending heavily on Clay Jenkins and his staff. Things are improving significantly in Dallas County so we cannot say that in-person learning won’t happen yet.”
Several questions were presented at the meeting about in-person and virtual models and how to best serve students across the learning and socioeconomic spectrum. Ultimately, parents have to two weeks prior to the start of the school year to a choice concerning their children.
Hinojosa said the hope is, based details from the district, on they will able to make informed decisions.
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August 14, 2020 at 10:16AM
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Teachers Demonstrate, Asking Dallas ISD Board To Delay In-School Learning - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
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